One great way to sample more restaurants on a single inexpensive trip is to find places that Marie would be certain to enjoy more than me. We found just such a place in one of our favorite cities in Tennessee. Here’s her story.Continue reading “Freiberg’s, Johnson City TN”→

Pal’s Sudden Service is known as a drive-thru fast food place. In fact, the small chain is the industry leader in speed, efficiency, and accuracy in its drive-thru. But before it started putting its brand together and constructing identical buildings – beautifully oddball, but identical – it opened a store in Kingsport that is nothing like the others, and that’s the one we went to visit. Continue reading “Pal’s Sudden Service, Kingsport TN”→

Marie writes… Sometimes you know before you even see the lobby that you won’t want to eat the free breakfast at your hotel. Sometimes you have a place already in mind that wouldn’t change your decision even if the hotel has the breakfast buffet to end all buffets. In this case, both were true. Continue reading “Old Lighthouse Diner, Bristol TN”→

For the last stop on our first day of traveling, we visited the incredibly neat twin cities of Bristol, where the state line runs right down the center of the main street. On the Virginia side, there’s a diner that’s been open since 1942 and serves a far better burger than you’d expect to get in a greasy spoon like it. Continue reading “Burger Bar, Bristol VA”→